In housing construction, and in particular the construction of custom and track single family dwellings, the most time consuming, difficult, and dangerous part of the construction procedure can be the construction of the roof. However the construction of the roof is also one of the most important since getting the house, during construction, "under roof" allows contractors to work when weather conditions might otherwise prevent it. In a typical single family house construction, the roof takes many days to complete even when the labor is skilled, poses a safety hazard to workers who must work on the roof (e.g. putting on roofing material, etc.), and the constant passage over the roof that is necessary during construction has a tendency to do some damage to the roof which ultimately can decrease its effective life.
According to the present invention, it is possible to practically prefabricate a roof, ship it over conventional highways in trucks, reassemble it on the house site, and lift it into place and affix it in that position. A roof section can be safely constructed from the disassembled components on the housing site in a very short period of time, and can be lifted into place and nailed in proper position--also in a very short period of time. In this way hundreds of man hours can be saved in the roof construction at the job site, and the house can brought "under roof" much more quickly, with resulting advantages in being able to continue construction even when weather conditions might otherwise ordinarily prevent it.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a method of erecting a roof on a shell for a house is provided. The method comprises the steps of: (a) Constructing at a location remote from the house a roof panel comprising subroofing, roofing, and first joists extending along the proposed slope of the roof panel. (b) Constructing a plurality of ceiling joists and a plurality of upright supports. (c) Constructing a roof section remote from the house by pinning the ceiling joists to the first joists and the upright supports, and bringing the upright supports into supporting contact with the first joists, to construct a generally triangular support structure. (d) Lifting the roof section onto the top of a house. And, (e) permanently affixing (e1) all of the elements of the roof section together and (e2) to the house shell.
Step (e) is preferably further practiced by disposing braces extending transversely to the ceiling joists and to the upright supports, and affixing the braces to the ceiling joists and upright supports, and step (el) is practiced before step (d). Step (c) is preferably further practiced by disposing the portions of the upright supports and first joists in contact with each other between sheet material (e.g. plywood) splices, and attaching the sheet material (as by air nailing) to both the upright supports and the first joists.
Typically step (c) is practiced at a manufacturing location, and the method comprises the further steps of, between steps (c) and (d): (c1) Unpinning the ceiling joists from the first joists and upright supports, and removing the upright supports from contact with the first joists. (c2) Shipping the panel, ceiling joists, and upright supports in disassembled relationship by truck to the house site. And, (c3) repeating step (c) at the house site. The components are preferably labelled when assembled at the factory location so that after they are disassembled they may be easily reassembled in the proper positions, and the roof panel may be wrapped in plastic to protect it.
The invention also relates to a prefabricated roof panel, and a prefabricated roof section. An exemplary roof panel according to the invention comprises: subroofing; roofing; a plurality of first joists extending along the slope that the roof panel will assume in use; a plurality of second joists generally transverse to the first joists and facia applied on one of the second joists; and means defining openings in the first joists adjacent the facia, the openings being generally in alignment with each other from joist to joist, and for receiving pins.
An exemplary roof section according to the invention has as the major component parts a roof panel, ceiling joists, and upright supports, with dowels (preferably tapered at one end) for pinning the ceiling joists to the first joists of the roof panel and the upright supports. The ends of the upright supports engaging the first joists are beveled for that purpose, and plywood, or other sheet material, splices are provided at the second ends of the upright supports, retaining first joists between them. The joists and supports preferably are wooden, as are the dowels. Indicia is preferably applied to the components to indicate where parts fit back together for easy assembly.
It is the primary object of the present invention to provide for the quicker, sturdier, safer, and more predictable erection of roofs for houses. This and other objects of the invention will become clear from an inspection of the detailed description of the invention, and from the appended claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a schematic view illustrating the sequence of method steps that may be practiced according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an exemplary ceiling joist according to the invention;
FIG. 3 is a side view of an exemplary upright support according to the invention;
FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an exemplary tapered end wooden dowel according to the invention;
FIGS. 5 and 6 are top plan and side views, respectively, of an exemplary brace according to the present invention;
FIG. 7 is a side view of an exemplary roof panel according to the present invention, looking in on the roofing material;
FIG. 8 is an end view of an exemplary roof section according to the invention including a roof panel, ceiling joists, and upright supports, connected at one portion thereof to a stud wall;
FIG. 9 is a side view of the roof section of FIG. 8 looking in at the side opposite that illustrated in FIG. 7, and showing the stud wall in more detail;
FIG. 10 is an end detail view showing the interconnection of a pair of roof sections to form a house roof; and
FIG. 11 is a side view of an exemplary bracket that may be utilized in construction to connect components that are 90.degree. with respect to each other.